MonthMay 2014

Systems. Now for me, the word ‘systems’ conjures up images of either wizard-like gadgets all working mysteriously together to get a Mr B. Aldrin near the moon, or those nebulous things which are to blame when your card won’t cover the restaurant bill.

The world of the system is strange and otherworldly to us, intangible and yet at the same time attractive. I mean, stick the word ‘system’ on just about anything and it instantly becomes somehow better, more niche, more desirable. For example think of the raise in cred of some pimply yoof who pops out to spend his uni grant on a telly and comes home with a ‘cinema system’ – or the uber-cool of owning a VHS ‘home video system’ back in the day, where you rented the latest blockbuster and happily sat watching hazily indistinct figures trying to tell you something vitally important through a blizzard of snow. But who cared? It was a system. It did stuff. It was cool.